


little fires everywhere

by mugsandpugs



Category: Fruits Basket
Genre: Domestic Fluff, F/M, Living Together, Post-Canon, Power Outage
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-20
Updated: 2021-01-20
Packaged: 2021-03-18 19:15:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 666
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28872171
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mugsandpugs/pseuds/mugsandpugs
Summary: Despite working three and a half jobs between the two of them, the first apartment they can afford has many faults. Still, Tohru is teaching Kyo to look on the bright side.
Relationships: Honda Tohru/Sohma Kyou
Kudos: 17





	little fires everywhere

**Author's Note:**

> This was originally meant to be part of a February challenge... But that didn't happen, so now it's a standalone.

They can only squeeze about five minutes of hot water from their shower at a time, so Kyo does his washing-up fast to better relax and enjoy the spray against his face, easing the kinks from his muscles. He’s too young to feel this sore at the end of each shift, but both of his jobs take a great physical toll on his body. 

He won’t complain. He doesn’t even  _ want _ to. Each effort; every yen saved, is a labor of love; another brick on the metaphorical home he and Tohru are building together; from now until the rest of their lives. Some might say that nineteen is too young to know their soulmate, and maybe that person is correct, but Kyo and Tohru have always defied the rules, from the moment of their first meeting all those years and heartbreaks prior. 

So he sighs, turning this way and that under the hot spray. And though the pressure is sub-par, the shower so narrow he has to tuck his elbows (fitting, for the one-room shoebox they call home), he feels calm. Feels as though he’s washing the roughness of the day away, and in just a few minutes he’ll emerge clean and soft and worthy of her love. 

Only, just as he’s shaking the sodden red hair from his eyes, there’s a whirr and a mechanical click, and the lights in the bathroom switch off, bathing him in blackness. Kyo is a twitchy boy; still paranoid from a lifetime of baring his fangs at every threat. _ Is this another attack?  _

He strains his eyes, waiting for vertical pupils to expand; to absorb any light. He forgets, sometimes, that he’s no longer a cat or a monster combined. Those parts of him are gone, and will never return. 

So there the darkness remains until a dear voice calls, reaching him through chilled tiled walls: “Kyo-kun? We’re having a power outage...”

She knocks on the door, still so polite even after they’ve been  _ together, _ so many times, in every sense of the word. He has to tell her to come in, and feels relieved by the beam of an electric lantern through his plastic shower curtain. He shuts the water off and reaches out; takes Tohru’s hand, and also the towel she offers him.

“Be careful, Kyo-kun. Don’t slip in the puddles.”

They walk slowly, hand-in-hand, first to the dresser to don some pajamas, and then to the breaker box. Tohru holds the flashlight while Kyo flips switches in a guise of manly competence. Nothing happens. Tohru pats his arm consolingly.

“This damn apartment,” Kyo growls, his pride bruised. But because his edges have been softened, buffered by gentleness as the scars of his trauma fade, there’s no true rage to be found. Sighing in resignation, he finds and lights their stash of white emergency candles.

“We can pretend we’re camping!” Tohru cheers, arranging the flickering pet fires around their kitchen table.

Kyo hums, warm and fond. “Somehow, I knew you’d say that.”

They remember, belatedly, the pints of ice cream they’d bought on sale as a special treat. “Oh,” Tohru bemoans. “They’ll melt... They’ll be ruined...”

“Not if we eat them first.” 

They’d been planning to wait until their anniversary, but time was of the essence. Taking the lantern with him to the kitchen, Kyo fetches both cartons, and some spoons. He returns to kneel across from his partner, holding each in his hands for her to choose from. “Green tea, or strawberry?”

She dithers indecisively between both options, taking the question so seriously that Kyo has to laugh. “Here,” he offers, and removes both lids. “We’ll share.”

He watches the candlelight play shadows across her sweet face, enamored when she takes a spoonful from one, then the other, savoring each bite as though still undecided over which is superior. For Tohru, even discounted ice cream is special.

“You eat, too, Kyo-kun,” she insists, blushing when she catches his eye.

Smiling wide, Kyo does as she asks.


End file.
